Lacing device



June 1942- s. L; GOOKIN LACING DEVICE Filed May 1, 1940 Patented June 2 1 942 Sylvester L. Gookin, Quincy, Mass, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Borough ofFlemington, N. J., a

Jersey corporation of New Application May 1-, 1940, Serial No. 332,754

This invention relates to-lacing devices and its object is to provide an improved device capable of being made of thin sheet metal and ofwithstanding heavy stresses without being distorted or pulled from the article to which it is attached. The device herein illustrated is designed more especially for heavy boots intended to be subjected to severe conditions.

Eyelets and lacing hooks, as commonly applied to boots and shoes, are not satisfactory for thick, heavy laces nor for boots subjected to heavy stresses, particularly those encountered in snow sports and .tramping in wet localities.

On the other hand, the improved lacing device herein illustrated provides not only for strong anchorage to a boot but also for easy insertion and tightening of a heavy lacing and close relation of the parts connected by it.

A novel feature of this lacing device is an arched bend forming an upstanding 100p arranged to maintain a lacing on the outer surface of the material to which the device is secured.

Another novel feature is the manner in which the lacing loop is reinforced against distortion. For this purpose the loop is provided with revolute margins that form external beads. This feature not only permits the use of metal thin enough to be sharply bent without being cracked,

' but also does away with edges of metal where the lacing is reeved through the loop. The beads thus formed also impart an ornamental appearance to the device.

Referring to the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a lacing device embodying the novel features of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a typical ski-boot provided with lacing devices made and applied in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 3 is a cross-section of'the instep portion of such a boot provided with lacing devices as shown in Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a sectional view indicated by line IV-IV in Fig. 3.

Each of the lacing devices is made of a single strip of thin sheet metal. Two sharp crosswise bends l2- and [4 each of about 90 angle divide the strip into a series ofthree principal portions including a fiat terminal portion [6, a

longer flat terminal portion l8, and an intermediate portion connecting them. The intermediate portion includes an abutment portion 24 and a U-shaped bend 20 of sufficient radius to provide a loop for the reception of a thick, strong lacing such as that indicated at 22 in Fig. 2. The portion of the strip that connects the sharp bends l2 and M has greaterlength at one side of the U-shaped bend 20 than at the other, the longer side including the portion 24 which is located where it may serve as an abutment for an edge 26 of a lacing margin 32 interposed between the terminal portions IB and IS.

The terminal portions 16 and I8 extend in a common direction from the bends l2 and I4 and lie in confronting relation to each other. They are provided with registering holes 28 through which an eyelet or rivet may extend to provide anchorage. These terminal portions are initially spaced slightly more than the thickness of the margin 32 to facilitate inserting the latter between them. In Figs. 2, 3, and 4 the lacing devices are represented as anchored by eyelets 30, the heads of which are seated on the outer terminal portions l6 and the clenched portions of which are seated. on the inner terminal portions 18. When the eyelets are tightly clenched, they draw the terminal portions l6 and I8 against an interposed margin 32 of a boot with a powerful clamping pressure.

The abutment portions 24, if abutted against the edges 26 while the fasteners 30 are being inserted and clenched, will thereafter maintain the devices against angular displacement. Moreover, if the fastener-receiving holes 3| in the margins 32 are located at a corresponding distance from the edges 26, the abutment portion 24 will assist in locating the holes 28 in register with the holes in those margins. In Fig. 2 three pairs of the full complement of lacing devices are omitted, the better to illustrate the holes 3| in the boot.

The portions 20 and 24 are provided with closely rolled margins 34, 34, so formed as to provide hollow external reinforcing beads. When the strip is initially stamped from flat sheet metal, the intermediate portions are wider than the terminal portions 16 and IE to provide suflicient over-all width to furnish the beads or revolute margins without breaking into the sharp bends 12 and I4. These revolute margins are curled outwardly and toward each other as represented in section in Fig. 4, and in addition to reinforcing the intermediate portions they also place the sharp edges of the strip where they cannot be engaged by the lacing. Consequently, no special finishing operation is required to safeguard the lacing against being frayed.

The preferred arrangement of the lacing devices as applied to -a boot is to locate them in pairs, one opposite and in line with another. When they are applied as above described, with regard particularly to locating the abutment portions 24 against the edges 26 of a boot, no portion of the lacing can lie between the edges 26 to prevent drawing these edges into close relation one with the other. On the contrary, the bights of the lacing are maintained on the outer surfaces of the margins 32 where their bulk will have no limiting efiect in closing the gap between the margins. This arrangement so greatly facilitates reeving the lacing through the Ushaped loop portions 20 that simply pulling both ends of the lacing upwardly will close the gap between the margins 32 with uniform tension throughout the series of lacing devices. Conversely, when the lacing is untied to permit removal of the boot, the lacing will again slide so readily through the loop portions that the only act necessary is to separate the laced margins at the top of the boot. All portions of the laced margins will then partake of such separating.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A sheet metal strip having a U-shaped loop portion the side margins of which are individually revolute in cross-section and form individual hollow reinforcing beads, and two terminal portions connected by said loop portion and projecting from the latter in right-angular relation thereto.

2. A boot upper comprising a pair'of separable cooperative lacing margins each provided with a series of sheet metal strips of the type specified in claim 1 so placed as to locate their terminal portions against opposite faces of the lacing margins and their loop portions over the outer face of said margins to maintain the bights of a lacing on said outer face, and fasteners each extending through both terminal portions of one of said strips and through the interposed lacing margin.

- SYLVESTER L. GOOKIN. 

